Life behind closed doors for Katie Holmes was far from the romantic love-story her Hollywood husband Tom Cruise painted it to be, it has been claimed.

Today it was being suggested the pair had been living in separate sections of their sprawling LA apartment, with Katie opting to live in a large communal area in the Scientology Celebrity Centre - rather than face her increasingly controlling husband.

After Katie announced her plans to divorce her husband of five-years, their lives have been blown open with a picture of a controlling, often manipulative Cruise emerging - taking charge of his wife's movie roles, appearance and even changing her name.

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Church-goers: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on their way to the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles when they were first marriedThe Sunday Mirror reports the Top Gun star told his wife she must be called 'Kate' instead of 'Katie' and carefully picked her film roles - making sure the starlet didn't opt for something he didn't agree with.

Also their building, in the huge towering Scientology complex in LA was carefully guarded with sources revealing 'men in suits' stood guarding every door and even 'escorting' people to their own rooms.

'Katie was really embarrassed about it and didn't seem to like people to see the way she lived behind closed doors. Everyone knew they stayed in speerate sections of the apartment,' a family friend said.

Support act: The church offers courses and advice to couple's with marital problems

Trapped: Katie and Cruise lived in separate sections of the sprawling Scientology centre in Clearwater

Cracks began to emerge after former Dawson's Creek star Katie satrted to fear for her daughter Suri, six, when she realised Tom's devotion to Scientology could not be wavered.

And Katie, who filed for divorce in New York - where it is thought she stands a better chance of getting custody of Suri, was thought to have 'finally snapped' after seeing a shot of her husband posing proactively on the cover of W magazine with two women draped over him.

But it was his unwavering commitment to following the Scientology doctrine which sowed the seed of discontent according to family and friends.

Under the doctrine a child can make his or her own decisions and Tom treated his daughter 'like a little adult'.

The show must go on: Tom Cruise took off from Reykjavik airport, following news Katie Holmes has filed for divorce

A family friend said: 'Tom basically treats Suri as a little adult, however Katie treats her like a six-year-old child, and that causes major clashes.'

'The couple were arguing over Suri.'

The source added to RadarOnline.com: 'Katie did not want Tom making all the decisions in Suri's life, and that's what was going on. She decided it was high time she started deciding on what was best for her daughter, or at least having an equal say, and she knew that would be impossible if she remained Mrs. Tom Cruise.'

Split: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing after five years together

Separate lives: Katie and her daughter Suri were spotted in New York yesterday

Focused on work: Tom was pictured on filming his new movie Oblivion in Iceland on Wednesday

Holmes's lawyer Jonathan Wolfe made it clear what his client's priority is in a statement to People magazine: 'Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest.'

But Katie's parents are happy to have their baby back, too.

A source told RadarOnline.com: 'It's been tough for them over the past five years to watch Katie be controlled by Tom and they really felt that they had lost their daughter to some extent.'

So, that's the one bright side to the divorce — they feel like they're getting the old Katie back again.'

But it does appear that Tom really was blindsided by his wife of five years, as he gushed about her at a ceremony to accept his Friars Club Foundation Award just two weeks ago.

Tom who took his children Suri, 6, and Connor, 17, as dates to the event, said after he picked up his award: 'My wife who couldn't be here tonight, I have to thank, she made this suit for me. She's amazing. I'm very lucky to be married to her.

He then added, according to Usmagazine: 'She's in China working.'

She has asked for legal custody, primary residential custody and a 'suitable amount' of child support from her husband, TMZ reports.

Miss Holmes is also asking for a division of property in the divorce documents, although there is a significant pre-nuptial agreement that is based on California law.

The couple are worth around $275 million - much of that owing to Tom's box office success.

The terms of the pre-nup are understood to be clear - for each year the couple stay married, the Dawson's Creek actress collects $3million - to a maximum of $33 million after 11 years - as well as their palatial home in California.

If their marriage had lasted more than 11 years, Holmes would have received half of Cruises’s reportedly $250 million fortune.

After filing for divorce less than six years later, according to the agreement, Katie should only be entitled to $15 million as well as the couple's $35 million Beverly Hills Mansion

But with an estate worth upwards of $275 million, Katie is expected to seek much more and there is already intense speculation as to how much she will collect when the papers are signed.

Cruise is believed to have 'not seen' the divorce coming.

Dream wedding: The pair married in an Italian castle in 2006 and filed their marriage certificate in California

But sources insist that she did tell her husband of five-and-a-half years that she was filing for divorce – but she didn’t give him a chance to control the spread of the news, as he did with Nicole Kidman.

The fact that she issued a solo statement speaks of some heat around the final extinguishing of the marriage.

However, Mr Cruise's shock is to be believed considering the fact that the pair were spotted together in Iceland around two weeks ago, holding hands.

Nevertheless, Miss Holmes failed to turn up to at any of the worldwide premieres of her husband’s latest film Rock of Ages, despite Cruise’s constant protestations of love for his wife.

Skeptic: Katie Holmes is said to dislike and distrust Scientology - of which her estranged husband is a vocal advocate - and no longer wants their daughter to be raised in accordance with its doctrines

The final arguments seem to have been over where Cruise was going to spend his 50th birthday on Tuesday. He told her that he was planning to be on the set of his latest film Oblivion, in Iceland, and that seems to have been the last straw.

The statuesque brunette had frequently been pictured looking drawn and exhausted during her marriage. One Hollywood source said she had been ‘utterly miserable with Tom for months, if not years’.

source:dailymail

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